The she-wolf bristled, muzzle wrinkling as dark lips peeled back to reveal yellowed teeth and a single, blue-green fang. Hackles rose, and her tail stood on end - but then Sylvanberry was speaking, and her head rose, turning her attention to the bird.

And Sylvanberry was family, and she was young, and so she listened. Jayberry hated to do so, but she relaxed her tensed muscles, covered her teeth, and straightened up. Her eyes remained on the stag and the weasel, wary and ready to fight back if they disobeyed her sister's pleading.

Her ears perked, listening to the stag's bellowed words. She was thoroughly unimpressed, but anger rose in her chest at his threat towards Mother. What they did was wrong; she wasn't deluded. But she was loyal to her family, and in Mother's eyes they were right, and so she acted. "Are we the only monsters?" she growled, "You keep a child captive, and are out to kill someone who is injured. Can you really consider yourself good?"

He began to move, and so did she. Slinking at an angle, she aimed to move, to stand between Sylvanberry and Pride protectively. It was foolish, she knew, but the sight of the bloodied, furious stag moving anywhere near her young sister stirred her blood. If she was injured in the pursuit of protection of the young one, so be it.

@Sylvanberry

Something wasn't quite right, and Sylvanberry wanted to get out. She slowly began moving forward, until Pride and Jayberry met each other nearby. The hybrid went slinking back into her alcove, breathing shallowly.

The stag sounded.. angry. Terrifying. He spoke many words she didn't understand, of monsters and slaying and tormenting the innocence. Of death. This one, he spat, and the bird felt herself pressing further up against the cave wall, trembling. Was she in trouble? What was going on? She wanted to leave.

And then, a voice.

The hatchling almost let out a cry with the shock, but in the face of Pride and Jayberry, this much was a relief. She didn't have to speak out loud. She could shut her eyes and pretend to be somewhere else, if just for a moment. The fear remained, almost tangiable, but slowly, Sylvanberry began to settle.

I don't know what's happening, came a quick response. I don't want to be here. I don't know what a kingdom is. I don't know where my family went. They left me here. I just came out. The goose-- they called her Mother --told me to stay.

There was a pause. I don't know who she is, accompanied an image of Jayberry, where she saw her. I... none of them gave me their names, except for one. Cloudberry. I don't know who any of them are.

Panic. What was a kingdom? Was it bad? This much probably wasn't hidden from Envy-- too young to realise they could see it. Where? Why? What will happen? Are they going to find me? What will they do to me? Will I end up like-- her gaze shot to the illuminated, sickening gore in strewn along the tunnel.

She wanted to go home.

@Pride

"YES, you are the only monsters! Do you really think we would HARM Baneberry?! She has been kept away from you for her own safety! And INJURED?! After what you have done, you should be DEAD!"

The stag continued to stride slowly but steadily forward. He could feel his magicka building back up, sparking with anger, and though he knew it might lash out of control with his fury, the best he could do was strive to not accidentally strike the little one. Instead he aimed for Jayberry, who'd come closer--close enough to reach the child.

With a toss of his antlers he released his magicka, aiming to grip Jayberry and fling her violently upward and away, down the tunnel. If she broke some bones, well, all the better. If I'm lucky, perhaps her neck, he thought savagely.

@Envy

As chaos ensued between Pride and Jayberry, Envy slightly narrowed their eyes and tried to blot it all out. Their only focus then, was the newly-hatched Gembound hiding away, whose terrible fear they could feel almost as vividly as their own. There was a war, they thought back. Your... family... stormed Eridanus in a quest to kill and maim everyone there. They failed.

The young one seemed confused, alone, her lack of knowledge baffling. But they supposed the goose was at least a little less of a monster than they had thought. At the very least, she wouldn't drag a newborn into the fray to their death. Of course, that didn't mean much. But wait...? She did not know the wolf? Envy's focus wavered as they considered this. As the connection between them flickered, Envy tried to keep it open, pushing their consciousness out again.

You mean to say--?

After those strained thoughts the link broke, suddenly and abruptly, bringing with it the remainder of the newborn's jumbled thoughts; a seething curtain of emotions and images that obscured their logic and drowned out their own feelings. They struggled to regain focus, blinking away the haze. But with annoyance, they realized they would need to try again, shaking their head to try and clear the fog.

Damn magic.


Speech. Thought.

@Jayberry

The wolf bared her fangs, glaring down the stag. "The only monsters? I'm positive there are many others in these Caves. No one is truly good, you need to look at yourself." she growled, lowering her head and bristling her fur as he dared to approach her and - by proxy - Sylvanberry.

"Touch her," she snarled, ears flattening against her skull, "and I will kill you. Even if I can't today, I will do whatever I can to kill you." and then she was flying.

Her eyes widened, and she yelped, striking the ground painfully with an audible crunch, ribs giving way from the force. She rolled, and struggled to her paws, standing gingerly. For a moment, she thought of fleeing. But, no, she could never abandon Sylvanberry or Shiny - her eyes caught the catsquirrel slipping away, and the knot in her chest loosened in relief. There, one less family member to worry over.

Flashing her teeth, she attempted to cast Stinkhorn, to cause such a smell as to stun the stag and weasel and hybrid, so she could grab the hybrid and run. But instead, there was a sudden sickly sweet smell, as there a hundred roses had suddenly bloomed. 'Shit.'
@Sylvanberry

They failed. Sylvanberry was unsure exactly ehat this meant, but there was another spike of fear likely felt by Envy before the link broke. Uncertainty. She had a vague idea that a family was meant to be good, but there was something bad about the way Envy referred to hers.

She didn't like it.

She felt the connection flickering and then fading, and Sylvanberry went into a mild panic. Faced back with reality, the smell (suddenly mixed with roses?) and the sights and the stag and the wolf talking about killing and death.

The hybrid saw Envy settled on Pride's back. She took a hesitant step forward-- unsure if she could do what she intended to. She was weak, and young, and small and dizzy and she wanted to go somewhere else and fall asleep. But, slowly, the hybrid emerged, an iridescent shape behind Jayberry, unfurled her wings, and flew.

... not that gracefully, mind you.

It was a honking, swaying, dangerous flight. Her wings flapped far more than what was actually necessary, and she went flying straight for Pride's face, damn near snagging herself on his antlers, but she was flying. She landed (or more accurately, crashed) straight onto the stag's back, blue eyes wide and staring at Envy.

"What do I do?" The tiny hybrid rasped, a hoarse whisper. "Where do I go? What will happen? I'm afraid."

@Pride

For a moment, Pride was certain that this was an attack. The certainty in Jayberry's tone--the hatred--and the honking battering of wings that echoed Blackberry to an extreme--this had to be a trick. He tensed down, dropping his antlers instinctively--but then the thing flew around, and was on his armored back, murmuring plaintively. ...It's afraid, he realized.

He wasn't sure what Jayberry was doing. She'd bloomed fungus or plants, by the looks, all around her--and its sweet odor reached him even from here. Let's do this, she'd said--was it some kind of an attack?

The stag let out a fierce snort, and then spoke softly as he gathered his magicka again. "Close your eyes," he warned the two. Some part of him was tempted to charge in, to rend and gore at Jayberry with his antlers--some primal, shaggy red stag that still lived deep within the delicate, pristine white form. But now he had a child on his back--and how did that happen? Is she just--joining us of her own accord? and, whether she knew her well or no, Jayberry was her family. A physical assault might throw the child off and harm her, and he didn't want her to have to see Jayberry torn apart, either.

But that wasn't why he warned them to close their eyes.

His magicka boiled to the surface, in his mind a surge of shimmering sparks, and his own silver eyes slipped shut. He did his best to target the stones, and any fungus or plants, just beneath the black wolf--and to change them, to vaporize them in a flash of burning white-hot plasma.

Let her burn, he said to himself, and the thought was surprisingly calm.

@Envy

Envy felt their blood seethe with surprise, as the hybrid took off without warning. However, they felt a surge of glee and more than a little bit of satisfaction, as the hybrid landed atop Pride's back, facing them, and physically speaking to them. They dipped their head, twitching their ears, taking a moment to carefully consider what to say next. "You can... join my kingdom, if you want," they said, slowly, carefully. "We'll protect you there, from the Goose and her enemies. And... you could be a part of a family. A real family. Not one of blood and fear."

They thought about what Pride would have said... and even as the promise crossed their lips, they felt their quills tremble slightly with fear. The Bloodberries had almost been completely decimated, yet the goose had escaped. They didn't doubt that all of the goose-spawn would stop at nothing to get this one back. "Close your eyes now. We can discuss this once we return to the kingdom. When you are safe." They echoed Pride's command. "I'll make sure you're safe. You have the promise of a king."

Strong words. And yet Envy didn't know if they'd be enough, or even if they'd come true. But for now, the young one had to have faith in them. She was standing before them, and she was bigger than them, and if they couldn't convince her to stay with them, they could well have a bigger problem on their paws.

Speech. Thought.

@Jayberry

Jayberry definitely should have learned more Magic--spells that could actually do damage. If she survived this, she intended to put her nose to the grindstone and learn magic.

Then again, that might be a bad idea, seeing as it always seemed to fail when she desperately needed it. Such as now, when she managed to fill the air with such a sweet smell that her head throbbed, thorned roses blooming around her paws.

Her eyes widened in horror, watching as Sylvan took flight, gasping "Sylvanberry! Don't!" but she didn't have much time as the flowers lit up with a bright purple-blue thing that was not quite liquid nor solid nor gas, and she only had a moment to wonder what it was before she felt the pain, fire racing up her legs, catching easily on the dry fur that grew from her burn scars, covering her until she was nothing more than a wolf-shaped ball of flame.

She rose up onto her hind paws, like a rearing horse, and screamed in agony, a shrill sound that came from low in her chest. The she-wolf twists as she comes down, bolting in an attempt to flee, but only manages a few strides before she collapses, still screaming, and rolls on the floor, thrashing in pain and attempting to put out the flames.

@Sylvanberry

Sylvanberry was unsure if she were totally aware about what a real family was, but if it meant she wasn't going to come back here, and he left here in the dark, and the gore? Then it probably was better than this.

The promise of a king, too, sounded... good. Important. Safe.

For the first time since hatching, Sylvanberry felt almost relieved. Maybe happy. Close your eyes, Pride said, and the hybrid blinked. She turned her head, instinctively, to look at Jayberry, and immediately understood why she'd been asked to shut them.

There was a bright light-- white and blinding. It forced Sylvanberry to close her eyes anyway, and they stung. For a moment, she thought that'd be it-- white light would come and everything would go away, and she'd be safe again.

There was screaming.

Sylvanberry opened her eyes again, and then was forced to shut them. She didn't see exactly what was going on, but she heard screaming. Jayberry, was she... meant to be family? Was she meant to do something for her?

Isn't that what family was meant to do?

The hybrid shook violently, terrified, on Pride's back. She shuffled closer to where she thought Envy was, trying to find some much-needed comfort in just touch, and knowing someone else was there.

Someone else who, at least, wasn't screaming.

"Wh-why?" The hybrid murmured, though it was unclear who or what she was actually referring to.

@Pride